Title: Gettin
1Gettin Stuck Its Mud Season in Vermont
- By Tacia Eriksen
- GEOL 196
2Ahhh... Mud Season in Vermont
- Vermont enjoys four official seasons each year,
but also struggles through an additional bout
with mud season, that persnickety period of time
between winter thaw and spring growth when just
about anything is liable to go wrong. - This image shows a muddy and rutted road.
- There are a horse and buggy up the road in the
distance.
Franklin LS06485
Mud Season in Vermont." Vermont Living
Vermont's Internet Magazine. 8 Jan. 2008
http//www.vtliving.com/mudseason/index.shtml
3Horse and Buggy in Mud
- Mud season is a unique time of year in Vermont,
and there are many wonderful stories to be told
of grapping with the muck, the mire, the dirt,
and the sludge. - Vehicles get stuck, horses get stuck, people get
stuck, and that is just the beginning. - This image shows a man and his horse and buggy on
a very muddy road. - The wagon wheels and horses legs are deep in the
mud.
Town Unknown LS05861
Horse and Buggy in Mud. 1913. Vermont State
Archives. Landscape Change Program. University of
Vermont. 10 Jan. 2008 http//www.uvm.edu/landscape
/search/details.php?ls05861sequence000set_seq
1imageSet1199994166-4786753620050AddRel
4Buggy on a Muddy Road
- Winter in Vermont officially begins at the winter
solstice, which occurs on either December 21 or
22, and ends at the spring equinox, around March
21 or 22. - Toward the end of March, the winter season begins
to lessen its grip on the state and patches of
bare ground appear while precipitation turns from
snow to rain. - This hand-colored lanternslide shows a horse and
buggy on a muddy, washed-out road.
Town Unknown LS06477
The Weather and Climate of Vermont." Vermont
Geographic Alliance. 8 Jan. 2008
http//academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/w
eather/weather_and_climate_of_vermont.htmmud20se
ason
5Traveling on a Muddy Road
- The rainy and wet transition from winter to
spring is often referred to as mud season. - In the past, when the majority of the states
roads were still dirt, mud season could bring
travel to a standstill, schools would be forced
to close until the roads dried out, vehicles,
horses, and people alike would often become stuck
in the mud. - This image shows a traveler in a buggy braving a
gravel road with muddy tire ruts in it.
Franklin LS06482
The Weather and Climate of Vermont." Vermont
Geographic Alliance. 8 Jan. 2008
http//academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/w
eather/weather_and_climate_of_vermont.htmmud20se
ason
6Car on Muddy Road and Improved Road Later
Arlington LS06497_000
Arlington LS06497_001
- These images depict the before and after effect
of mud season on a road in Arlington, VT. - The improved road is wider than the old road.
- The large tree on the left side in the before
photograph is not present in the after image. - The improved road is not as muddy as the old
road.
Improved Road. 1913. Vermont State Archives.
Landscape Change Program. University of Vermont.
10 Jan. 2008 http//www.uvm.edu/landscape/search/d
etails.php?ls06497sequence000set_seq1imageSe
t1199992603-47866f1bec850AddRel
7Car Stuck in Mud
- The Scenes of Vermont website lists this fond mud
season memory from Liz Hurd on their Mud Stories
page - Mud season is the time when everyone piles into
someones car after school and we struggle to
make it down the old dirt roads. Many times we
have to get out and push allowing ourselves to be
covered from head to toe with mud. All true
Vermonters love mud season! - This hand-colored lanternslide shows a black car
on a very muddy road.
Rutland LS06164
Hurd, Liz. "More Mud Stories From Vermont!"
Scenes of Vermont. 8 Jan. 2008 http//www.scenesof
vermont.com/mud2.htm
8Car Stuck in Mud
- Another fun story, this one from Mike Allen,
depicts car keys being lost in the mud after the
driver of a stuck vehicle exited through the
cars window, since the car was buried in mud up
to the bottom of the doors. - This hand-colored lanternslide shows a black car
stuck in a very muddy road.
Rutland LS06466
Allen, Mike. "More Mud Stories From Vermont!"
Scenes of Vermont. 8 Jan. 2008 http//www.scenesof
vermont.com/mud2.htm
9Car Stuck in Mud
- Dairy farmer Charles Keeler of Brookfield states
- You can plow snow, but not mud. Theres not much
you can do about mud except wait for it to go
away. The only thing to do is add gravel 18
inches is a pretty good surface but mud season
occurs before the town gravel pit melts out. - This image shows a car stuck in the mud on a
rural dirt road.
Town Unknown LS09432
OReilly, Jane. "In Vermont Mind Over Mud." Time
Magazine. 10 May 1982. 8 Jan. 2008
http//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,9
25357-2,00.html
10Road Curving Around Rock Outcropping
- The Green Mountain Club, with headquarters in
Waterbury Center, VT both advertises and cautions
against outdoor activities during mud season. - On their website, mud season is listed as April
15 through the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. - This image shows a muddy road curving around a
rock outcropping.
Town Unknown LS06505
"Mud Season Hikes." Green Mountain Club. 8 Jan.
2008 http//www.greenmountainclub.org/page.php?id
60
11Dirt Road Through Forest
- The GMC also asks people to help protect the
fragile alpine tundra and prevent soil erosion by
staying off the trails during Mud Season, while
further cautioning about specific popular hiking
trails, stating the sensitive alpine vegetation
on the summits of Mt. Mansfield and Camels Hump
are most vulnerable to damage. - This image shows a dirt road running through a
forest, with several muddy tire ruts lining the
road.
Stockbridge LS06559
"Mud Season Hikes." Green Mountain Club. 8 Jan.
2008 http//www.greenmountainclub.org/page.php?id
60
12Wagon on Side of Dirt Road
- Some mud season hiking guidelines the GMC does
offer include - Walk through the mud, not around it.
- Hike in the lower-elevation hardwood forest with
southern exposure. - Avoid the spruce-fir forests at higher
elevations. - This image shows a wagon on the side of a muddy
dirt road which runs through a forest with rocky
outcrops and large bounders.
Stockbridge LS06570
"Mud Season Hikes." Green Mountain Club. 8 Jan.
2008 http//www.greenmountainclub.org/page.php?id
60
13Person on Muddy Road
- The Vermont Vacations website depicts Vermonts
famed mud season, as passing quickly as the
hills turn to green. - This image shows a person working on the side of
a muddy, spring road. - There are patches of snow and trees along the
side of the road and a sludgy gully forming
toward the front of the image.
Town Unknown LS09434
Spring in Vermont." Vermont Vacation the
Official State of Vermont Tourism Site. 8 Jan.
2008 http//www.vermontvacation.com/seasons/spring
.asp
14A Muddy Street Beside Pittsburgh Paints
- In a Time Magazine article titled, In Vermont
Mind over Mud, Postman Julian Hill, who drives
63 miles a day on his rural delivery route,
states detours add five miles in mud season. - This image shows a woman pushing a child in a
baby carriage across a muddy street next to
Pittsburgh Paints in Springfield, VT.
Springfield LS10415
O'Reilly, Jane. "In Vermont Mind Over Mud." Time
Magazine. 10 May 1982. 8 Jan. 2008
http//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,9
25357-2,00.html
15Park in Town Center
- The Vermonters Vermont Blog describes mud season
as that most wonderful time of year in
Vermont, when there is not much anything that
anyone can doexcept to wait for the ground to
dry up enough for the towns to grade the road. - This image shows the Woodstock town green
surrounded by dirt roads and houses. - The dirt street travels from the foreground at
center and splits around the circular green.
Woodstock LS07759
"Mud Season in Vermont and Other Dirty Deeds."
Vermonter's Vermont Blog. 14 Mar. 2006. 8 Jan.
2008 http//www.vermonter.com/vtpress/?p21
16Farm Plowing in Spring
- This picturesque excerpt, from Chris Bohjalians
Midwives A Novel, details the correlation
between maple sugaring and mud season - the mud was a nightmare that year, but the
sugaring was amazing. Thats often the case. If
the mud is bad, the maple will be good, because
mud and maple are meteorological cousins of a
sort. The kind of weather that turns dirt roads
in Vermont into quicksand in March a frigid,
snowy winter, followed by a spring with warm days
and cold, cold nights also inspires maple trees
to produce sap that is sweet and plentiful and
runs like the rivers swollen by melted snow and
ice. - This image shows a farmer plowing his field the
old fashioned way with draft horses and a walking
plow.
Corinth LS09159
"Vermont Only Maple and Mud Season." Vermont
Only. 8 Jan. 2008 http//www.vtonly.com/loremar9.h
tm
17Tractor Pulling Car
- To conclude, mud season is
- That time of year when the simple task of making
it home after a day at work becomes a challenge.
- When the oft scoffed at, jacked-up,
four-wheel-drive trucks, with tires bigger than
cars become the most viable means of
transportation, sometimes the only means of
travel able to pass Vermonts rural dirt roads. - This image shows a tractor pulling a car out of
the mud on a rural dirt road.
Town Unknown LS09433
Mud Season in Vermont." Vermont Living
Vermont's Internet Magazine. 8 Jan. 2008
http//www.vtliving.com/mudseason/index.shtml
18The End
- All images in this presentation may be accessed
by typing in the LS number underneath each image
in the quick search field at http//www.uvm.edu/la
ndscape
Town Unknown LS11685_001
19Works Cited
- Allen, Mike. "More Mud Stories from Vermont!"
Scenes of Vermont. 8 Jan. 2008 lthttp//www.sceneso
fvermont.com/mud2.htmgt. - Bohjalian, Christopher A. Midwives a Novel. 1st
Ed. ed. New York Harmony Books, 1997. - Hurd, Liz. "More Mud Stories From Vermont!"
Scenes of Vermont. 8 Jan. 2008 lthttp//www.sceneso
fvermont.com/mud2.htmgt. - "Mud Season Hikes." Green Mountain Club. 8 Jan.
2008 lthttp//www.greenmountainclub.org/page.php?id
60gt. - "Mud Season in Vermont and Other Dirty Deeds."
Vermonter's Vermont Blog. 14 Mar. 2006. 8 Jan.
2008 lthttp//www.vermonter.com/vtpress/?p21gt. - "Mud Season in Vermont." Vermont Living
Vermont's Internet Magazine. 8 Jan. 2008
lthttp//www.vtliving.com/mudseason/index.shtmlgt.
- O'Reilly, Jane. "In Vermont Mind Over Mud." Time
Magazine. 10 May 1982. 8 Jan. 2008
lthttp//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,
925357-2,00.htmlgt. - Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey
Potash. Freedom and Unity a History of Vermont.
Barre, Vt Vermont Historical Society, 2004. 619.
- "Spring in Vermont." Vermont Vacation the
Official State of Vermont Tourism Site. 8 Jan.
2008 lthttp//www.vermontvacation.com/seasons/sprin
g.aspgt. - "The Weather and Climate of Vermont." Vermont
Geographic Alliance. 8 Jan. 2008
lthttp//academics.smcvt.edu/vtgeographic/textbook/
weather/weather_and_climate_of_vermont.htmmud20s
easongt. - "Vermont Only Maple and Mud Season." Vermont
Only. 8 Jan. 2008 lthttp//www.vtonly.com/loremar9.
htmgt. - Improved Road. 1913. Vermont State Archives.
Landscape Change Program. University of Vermont.
10 Jan. 2008 lthttp//www.uvm.edu/landscape/search/
details.php?ls06497sequence000set_seq1imageS
et1199992603-47866f1bec850AddRelgt. - Horse and Buggy in Mud. 1913. Vermont State
Archives. Landscape Change Program. University of
Vermont. 10 Jan. 2008 lthttp//www.uvm.edu/landscap
e/search/details.php?ls05861sequence000set_seq
1imageSet1199994166-4786753620050AddRelgt.